In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Welcome back to Purify the Heart. This is Pastor Zachary Courie. In Exodus 14, the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt was finalized, and so was God’s judgment on Pharaoh and his army. Today, Israel rejoices for one glorious moment, and then their infamous pattern of doubting the Lord’s providence, which started back in Egypt, continues.

Exodus 15

15 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;

the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation;

this is my God, and I will praise him,

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a man of war;

the Lord is his name.

4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea,

and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

5 The floods covered them;

they went down into the depths like a stone.

6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power,

your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.

7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;

you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.

8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;

the floods stood up in a heap;

the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,

I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.

I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’

10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;

they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

12 You stretched out your right hand;

the earth swallowed them.

13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;

you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

14 The peoples have heard; they tremble;

pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;

trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;

all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

16 Terror and dread fall upon them;

because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,

till your people, O Lord, pass by,

till the people pass by whom you have purchased.

17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,

the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode,

the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.

18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;

the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. (Exodus 15:1–27, ESV)

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

The song of Moses and the Israelites is a beautiful one. Not only do they realize that the right hand of God has saved them in ways that were impossible for them otherwise, but that He will continue to save them from other enemies. They anticipate going up against those enemies, and those enemies stepping down because they’ve heard of God’s work in favor of the Israelites. Their praise of the victory that is theirs because of God’s faithfulness was written down so that we would see what the nature of praise is: we overcome because God overcomes for us, which leads us to want to tell others who He is and what He does. Even when we, His baptized children, fall into doubt, He remains faithful to us. St. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:11-13, 11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:11–13, ESV)

By the way, you can listen here to hymn # 925, the Song of Moses and Israel, that’s been put to music in the Lutheran Service Book.

The song of Moses points us in multiple ways to Christ. All victory for God’s people is ultimately fulfilled in the victory that Jesus of Nazareth won for all of mankind by His sacrificial death on the cross. God’s enemies of sin, death, and devil have their dominion destroyed when Christ was destroyed, so to speak. Christ not only takes the place of the Israelites, but also of the Egyptians. He pays for their sins, too. This is part of His proclamation when He descends into hell after He’s laid to rest in the tomb: He proclaims to all those who rejected Him that God in fact provided for them a way out. What would otherwise be Gospel, or good news, to the ears of those who have fallen, becomes the fullness of hell’s punishment, of being made permanently cut off from God and His blessings, and yet most aware of it. The Lord wants us to know such things as He is a loving Father who disciplines us so that we won’t reject His abundant grace and mercy and His eternal redemption in Christ.

This is important to remember, because though we’re justified by faith alone, that is, that we are forgiven our sins freely for Christ’s sake, we must also strive to live in that state of forgiveness. When we don’t, we very quickly fall back into the habits of our sinful nature. This is exactly what we see with the Israelites who go from the moment of joyous victory to the next moment, three days later, of grumbling against the Lord and His mediator, Moses.

The Lord didn’t deliver His people from Pharaoh’s oppression so that they could live lives of ease, comfort, and pleasure. He saved them to become a nation that would praise the Lord to all other nations. He saved them to be His representatives to others, even as they are His representatives to one another. Their salvation is like a rebirth. They are a new people because they are now a freed people. But in their newness, they’re like infants, which means they have a lot of maturing to do. That maturing will include much grumbling on their part, but it will also include the Lord showing them time and again that He is dependable. This becomes a defining feature of faith. Faith doesn’t just believe, it depends on He who is dependable. It trusts in He who has proved Himself trustworthy.

This points us to our baptism into Christ Jesus. Jesus tells Nicodemas in John 3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again,” which He clarifies two verses later, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” And yet, once a person enters into the kingdom of God, which is the Holy Christian Church, which is that state in which the Holy Spirit indwells each person, that doesn’t mean that his sinful nature is permanently destroyed. It will be permanently destroyed at the moment the Lord receives us into glory. But for now, the Lord has allowed it to remain in us, so that we will have the opportunity, by God’s grace, to destroy it ourselves.

In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther explains that such baptizing with water indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

St. Paul writes in Romans 6, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4).

The Lord points us to this idea in today’s text when He has Moses throw a log into the bitter waters to make them sweet. The log is the cross of Christ, the benefits of which are applied to us in the bitter waters of Holy Baptism. The waters are bitter because they kill our sinful nature, so to speak, but they are made sweet, because they cleanse us of our unrighteousness. The cleansing itself is not temporal or temporary, but it’s benefits must continually be applied by our daily rememberance of our baptism so that we may be rooted in our identity as we go about being matured into Christ, the One into whom we’ve been baptized.

Let us pray. O God, You see that of ourselves we have no strength. By Your mighty power defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Thanks for joining me to Purify the Heart! Tomorrow, in Exodus 16, we’ll see how God miraculously provides bread from heaven for His people in the wilderness. Until then, grace be with you. Amen.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit purifytheheart.substack.com